From Idea to Reality: Turning App Concepts into Successful Products
In July 2023 approximately 90 thousand mobile apps got released on the Google Play Store. It is highly unlikely that each of them would spell a charm on the customers and be on the road to success. There is no secret recipe for creating a successful mobile app. However, there are steps that one use to create an excellent app. Other than that the success primarily depends on the power of the app idea, the interest of the masses, and the overall quality of it. However, an excellent functional application is the core ingredient.
To help you further escalate this thought, we have written this article to show you the different stages of creating an excellent app. An app that can be your road to success, therefore, let’s begin.
Phases of Creating an App Concept into a Successful Product
There are different phases of creating an app that paves the way toward the key to success. Therefore let’s start from phase 1.
Phase 1: Ideation
In this phase, we create the app idea, concept, and verify its sustainability in the market.
Problem Identification
The majority of the time, the idea behind a mobile application is a solution to an existing problem. For instance, Amazon was created for people to have options to shop in the comfort of their homes. Instagram was created to share personal memories with your friends and family. Whatever your core idea is, figure out whether it is an existing problem. Understand the pain point and start to work on it.
Market Research
Before creating a solution, it is important to assess whether there is a market for it. This is an important step because there should be takers. A solution can not exist without its adopters. To do this, you can conduct surveys or take the help of a third-party research firm.
Define Target Audience
We have a total of 8 billion people on Earth. It is highly likely that your product is not for everyone. This is the reason there is a market for different solutions. For instance, enterprise solutions, SME solutions, off-the-shelf solutions, and solutions that are sort of for everyone (Facebook, Google, Instagram). In fact, there is a segmentation of audience too such as Gen Z, Gen X, Millennials, Baby Boomers, etc. It is important that you define your audience beforehand to create design, features, and usability as per them.
Brain Storming and Concept Development
This is another strategy that is usually adopted by app entrepreneurs. In this, the entrepreneurs brainstorm multiple ideas. Once done, each idea can be catered to with basic research and an in-depth analysis depending upon the opportunity. Once an idea is finalized, a concept can be created around it.
Feature Prioritization
An application is an amalgamation of multiple features clubbed together. Make sure you define the core feature of the application and then, later on, decide on the surrounding features. The core feature of an app is ideally the USP of the application.
Validation and Feedback
A lot of people struggle with getting their app idea validated. However, there are several ways of doing it such as:
- Analyze the market
- Talk with your mentors
- Run a survey around it
- Interview members of your target audience
- Analyze the competition, their success, and the places where they lack
Monetization Strategy
The easiest way of coming up with a monetization strategy is to review the market and the preferences of the audience you are targeting. Once done, here are monetization strategies that you can apply to your app:
- In-app advertising
- Sponsors and partnership
- In-app purchase
- Free/Premium version
Feasibility of the App Idea
There are primarily four ways one can check the feasibility of an app idea:
- Market Feasibility: In this, we check the feasibility of the app idea from the market perspective. This can be achieved using competitive analysis, current market situation, future market, source of revenue, etc.
- Economic Feasibility: Every entrepreneur has a budget. Make sure the app idea doesn’t require a fortune that you can not comprehend for development. A shortcut to not sabotaging your budget and getting great quality apps would be by hiring app development companies in India.
- Schedule Feasibility: There is a time to launch an app. Check if there are services that already exists with the same idea that are irreplaceable or if the app idea is not relevant for the time.
- Technical Feasibility: During the ideation phase, it is important to get creative. However, this is done to understand whether it is possible to develop the app idea with the existing technology.
Stage 2: Design & Development
This is the phase where the app idea is turned into reality. Let’s check the different steps associated with it.
Requirement Gathering
In this step, the app development company gather all the requirement for the development of the app idea. This requirement is primarily catered to using an SLA (service level agreement). SLA defines the level of service required by the customer.
Conceptualization and Planning
In this step, the app development company conceptualizes the entire application from scratch. The idea behind conceptualization is to create something that is tangible, viable, and functional in nature. Once the concept is ready, the developers can start planning by diving the idea into multiple development phases.
Wireframing
A wireframe is a basic illustration of your idea in 2D and how its design would be on paper. While creating a concept we create all the pages that will be available on the app. Adding to it, the wireframe also shows the entire flow of the application from one tab or button to another page.
Visual Design
Once done with the wireframe, it is time to actually decide on the visual elements. It is important that it resonates with the brand, its products, and its identity. In this step, we can decide the color palette used, the type of graphics, and the overall design language.
Prototyping
Prototyping is the step in which we create the most basic and minimal version of an app idea. This is done to get an overall idea of how the app idea would look once turned into reality. A prototype is also used to get feedback from the target audience and even for getting funding for developing a full-fledged app.
Frontend Development
An application is a collaboration of the frontend and backend. Frontend is the visual part of the application which is used by the user to operate the application. The front-end of the application is developed by front-end developers using scripting languages like CSS, HTML, Javascript, etc. There are also frameworks that can be used for creating apps such, React Native, Flutter, etc. These frameworks also give the comfort of cross-platform development.
Backend Development
The backend of the application is the functional part that makes the features run. To develop this section, we need backend developers with the capability to use technologies such as Ruby on Rails, Laravel, Django, Nest, Node, etc.
Integration and Testing
This is the step to test the application for bugs. While developing, there are so many features and scenarios that need to be tested out. It is important to ensure that the app is as much bug-free as possible to ensure the user has a good time using it.
Deployment
In this step, we finally deploy the application. There are primarily two app stores for which an application is created i.e. Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Stage 3: Marketing
This is the phase where we start to create awareness around the application and its offering.
Define Marketing Goals
Marketing is an integral part of making an app successful and finding adopters for it. However, there are multiple marketing goals. Therefore, it is important to prioritize yours. Below, we have mentioned different marketing goals:
- Increasing awareness of the brand
- Finding new customers
- Creating sales and revenue
- Increasing organic traffic
- Increase the number of leads
- Increase brand engagement
App Store Optimization
App store optimization is a technique that is primarily used for app development. It is primarily the optimization of content, review, feedback, etc. on the app stores to increase the visibility of the application upon a relevant search.
Here are some strategies that marketers take for ASO:
- Optimizing the title and tags on the app store page
- Adding relevant keyword related to the brand features
- Writing a description that speaks to the target audience
- Add screenshots of the application
- Monitor the results of the application and keep experimenting
Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the primary strategies used by brands today to promote their product. With content marketing, you can create useful content and content that can help in creating awareness. Content such as:
- Blogs
- Newsletter
- White paper
- Social media post
- Videos
Social Media Marketing
Social media apps are amazing tools that can be used to increase the reach of your application. There are several social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest, etc. that can be used to spread the word about the app. Simply create engaging posts and share them using relevant hashtags. You can also hire influencers to promote your application.
App Review Sites & PR
There are several websites that provide app reviews & PR (press releases) such as ProductHunt, Mashable, Techcrunch, MobileAppDaily, etc. You can approach this website for an app review. This would help you reach their community and help in spreading the word further ahead. Aside from it, some of these brands also cover these apps and provide PR around them.
Paid Advertising
There are several types of paid advertising such as Google AdWords, influencer marketing, display advertising, etc. Choose a suitable advertising way if you want to boost your growth instantly. However, this should be done carefully, otherwise, you might end up wasting money.
App Analytics and User Feedback
Check the analytics of your application and the feedback provided by the users. You can check the bounce rate, increase/decrease user ratio, and several other aspects. User feedbacks are the window to criticism, read them carefully, and try to implement everything that is feasible.
Retention and Engagement Strategies
Marketing is subjective whether it be inbound or outbound. Try to see the spaces where you are lagging in terms of retention and engagement. Come up with strategies to overcome this issue.
Some of the strategies are mentioned below:
- Make sure the application is bug-free and doesn’t crash
- In-app advertising model should have limited advertising to sustain user engagement
- Work on the visual language of the website
- Try to make it easy to use for everyone and especially your target audience
- Add features that provide ease of usage
Wrapping Up!
With the digital era booming, there have been a series of app entrepreneurs. Therefore, the first thing to have on board is an excellent app experience for the users. Even if you are on a tight budget there is an option of outsourcing the task to app development companies in India or any other country with less per hour charges. Besides that overall functionality and the targetted solution. Once done, you need to run loads of marketing and awareness campaigns with the aim to reach every plausible customer. If all things are done right, there is no one stopping you from creating a successful app with adopters pushing it via word of mouth.
